“If you have not failed, you have not tried enough.” 🚀
I visited my good friend Siddhant Satija, founder of AdUncle, at the Amity University campus in Noida, where he walked me through his entrepreneurship journey. 🎙️
📊 In this episode, we unpacked:
- 💿 From selling CDs to sales jobs
- 📉 A fast first failure
- 🌐 Building AdUncle
- 💪 Saying no to Wipro
- 🧭 Advice for affiliates
🎥 Watch the full episode:
💿 From Selling CDs to Sales Jobs
Siddhant’s first money came in class 10, burning Windows XP CDs and selling them to schoolmates and neighbors. 💿
He knew his communication skills were weak. On his first day in the NCR, he took an event-management job selling Colgate in malls, then moved into public speaking and sales, with digital running alongside. For another founder story, read Anurag Batra’s interview. 🔗
📉 A Fast First Failure
A computer science graduate, he did web design, mobile apps and software in college. While building an affiliate-platform script for a client, he discovered affiliate marketing. 📉
His first venture was a network that paid people to tweet. It failed very fast, but taught him a lot quickly. Being based at Amity’s incubator, which had a $25 million fund and global connections, helped him see what the market in India, Singapore and the US actually needed.
🌐 Building AdUncle
That led to AdUncle, an Indian affiliate network that went international in 2013. His companies in India and the US also worked privately with a few clients in the US and Middle East, launching and managing their affiliate programs. 🌐
His pitch: a dedicated in-house affiliate hire costs a lot, while they offered the service for no more than $20,000 a year. For more on Indian affiliate networks, read Parul Bhargava’s vCommission story. 🔗
💪 Saying No to Wipro
He got a campus placement at Wipro, and everyone told him to work for a year or two first. But his father and grandfather were entrepreneurs, and “the bug of entrepreneurship” had already bitten. He stuck to his plan. 💪
Despite many failures and setbacks, he said the satisfaction and balance sheet beat a job, and valued the company at $5 million. Next, he planned to shift from business-oriented to technology-oriented, building in-house products, including solutions for bloggers.
🧭 Advice for Affiliates
Remember three things: hard work, dedication and persistence. More than 90% of people give up just as they’re about to taste success, so not giving up puts you in the top 10%. 🧭
For Indian affiliates: network, network, network, and be open rather than afraid someone will copy your plans. Look beyond the US and UK: tier two and tier three countries are where the real money is. He follows Harsh Agarwal, Moz, Matthew Woodward and NextBigWhat. For one of them, read Matthew Woodward’s interview, or see Ian Fernando’s interview. 🔗
📝 Key Takeaways From the Siddhant Satija Interview
- 📉 Fail fast and learn fast
- 🌐 Build what the market actually needs
- 💪 Trust your entrepreneurial instinct
- 🧭 Persistence puts you in the top 10%
- 🌍 Explore tier 2 and tier 3 countries
❓ FAQs About Siddhant Satija
Who is Siddhant Satija?
Founder of AdUncle, an Indian affiliate network that went international in 2013.
What was Siddhant’s first startup?
A network that paid people to tweet. It failed quickly.
What is Siddhant’s advice for affiliates?
Network, stay open, persist, and explore tier two and tier three countries beyond the US and UK.
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- Chai With Kj #4:From Rags to Riches: How Jitendra Vaswani Earns 6 Figures in Affiliate Marketing!
- Anurag Gupta Founder of DGM India Interview at India Affiliate Summit 2015
Would you turn down a campus job to chase a startup? Tell me in the comments. 💬
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Jitendra Vaswani is a well-known expert in SEO and AI-driven digital marketing. He has spoken at international events and founded Digiexe, a digital marketing agency, and AffiliateBooster, WordPress plugin designed specifically for affiliate marketers. With over 10 years of experience, Jitendra has helped many businesses succeed online. His bestselling book, Inside A Hustler’s Brain: In Pursuit of Financial Freedom, with over 20,000 copies sold globally, underscores his influence and commitment to empowering digital marketers.